


Where Do We Begin

by ohemgeeitscoley



Series: Call Me In The Morning [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Valentine's Day, implied future olicity, theallen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-11 22:45:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1178858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohemgeeitscoley/pseuds/ohemgeeitscoley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thea decides to surprise Barry for Valentine's Day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where Do We Begin

**Author's Note:**

> For thecoolcheryl, macyaudenstarr, and girlwithsixsmiles.

“Do you want to explain to me why I am in hiding in the bathroom in an overly fancy restaurant wearing the dress you talked me into buying three weeks ago with the explicit promise that you would go out with me today and we would do the single on Valentine’s Day thing together?”

Pulling the phone away from her ear slightly, Thea grinned as she finished steering her car in between the yellow lines and putting it in park. “I have no idea why you are hiding in the bathroom Felicity.”

“Thea. This isn’t funny. You cannot just rent out a restaurant, make it incredibly romantic with candles and flowers, and then send your brother down. We were supposed to go out tonight, you were not supposed to set me up with your brother.”

“I figured you guys could use a push.”

“A push? A push would be telling him to stop acting like an idiot. This is freaking throwing me off of the high board.”

“Felicity. All I told Oliver was that we were supposed to hang out tonight and that I was going to have to cancel.”

“Which would have been fine, cancelling is totally fine. But you didn’t need to ask him to throw me a pity date.”

“Did you listen to anything I just said? I didn’t ask Oliver to do anything.”

“What?”

Rubbing her temples with her fingers, Thea shook her head. “I didn’t ask Oliver to do anything. The candles? The flowers? The ridiculously expensive and now apparently exclusive restaurant? All Oliver. I had nothing to do with that.”

“You mean I’ve been hiding in the bathroom for twenty minutes trying to figure out a way to tell Oliver that he didn’t have to go along with your stupid plan, when this wasn’t your plan?”

“You’ve been in the bathroom for twenty minutes?”

“I panicked.”

“Well, maybe you should go put him out of his misery.”

“If he hasn’t already left. I mean, I would have left.”

“He hasn’t.”

“Did you make it to Central City,” Felicity asked as Thea rolled her eyes at her obvious attempt to change the conversation.

“I pulled into the rehab center just as you were calling.”

“He’s going to be happy to see you.”

“Or freaked out by me just randomly showing up for a maybe surprise Valentine’s Day date thing.”

“I’m sticking with happy.”

“I guess we’ll find out. Breakfast tomorrow? We can talk about how awesome our dates went over bagels.”

“Or how horrible they went and how awkward everything is going to be with mimosas?”

Thea’s lips pulled upward as she opened up the door to her car before responding. “Sounds good. Text me a time and a place and I’m there.”

“It might be three a.m. and my apartment.”

“Totally there. Now go!”

Placing her phone inside of her purse, Thea took a deep breath before walking toward the front doors to the center. She liked this place much more than the hospital. It had beige walls and pictures of different outdoor settings. It felt more welcoming, less sterile; it was a place people went to when they were ready to feel better, not when they weren’t sure what was going to come next.

Sam, the receptionist at the front desk, smiled at Thea as she stopped in front of the desk to sign into the visitor’s log. “Ms. Queen, Barry is going to be very excited to see you. The orderlies are finishing setting up outside for you guys now.”

“Perfect,” Thea replied matching the woman’s smile. “And, please, call me Thea. I’m too young to be a miss anything.”

Sam laughed as she pulled a visitor’s badge from the drawer setting it down next to the computer. “How long are you planning on staying today, Thea?”

"Until this plan blows up in my face or until you guys throw me out."

"So nine then?"

"Do I have wiggle room with the time? What’s wrong with nine thirty?"

"Other than it being half an hour past visiting hours, nothing."

"Ah, fine. Nine it is. Thanks for setting all of this up, I know it was pretty last minute.”

“Of course.” Sam grabbed the visitor’s badge, sliding it across the desk to Thea. “I’ll send in one of the orderlies when everything is ready.”

“Thanks again Sam, and Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Hurrying away from the desk, Thea made her way through the maze of halls before stopping in front of Barry’s room. The door was already open so she leaned against the door frame choosing to watch him work. He was sitting at the desk in the far right corner of the room, his fingers gliding over a tablet. She was pretty impressed with all of the tech that Felicity had managed to get into his room, she knew that the two of them had been working on some sort of project together, but neither of them were very forthcoming with the details.

She smiled before knocking on the wall inside of the room as he remained unaware of her presence.

Barry didn’t turn around right away, his fingers continuing their movements over the glass. Raising her eyebrow Thea scoffed. “Girl travels hours away and she can’t even get a hello?”

Barry glanced up from the tablet, his lips turning upward quickly. “You’re not a nurse.”

Thea laughed as she crossed the room to sit on the edge of his bed. “I feel like we’ve been over this. Multiple times actually.”

"I was in a coma you know, my memory isn’t what it once was."

"Excuses, excuses."

"What brings you all the way up here?"

"A cute guy. I figured I’d see if he wanted to be my Valentine."

"And you thought to stop by and see me first. Beautiful and thoughtful."

Thea glared at him, trying to fight the grin that wanted to spread across her face. “I heard you are busting out of here soon.”

"Two more weeks and I’m free."

"It’s not that bad. You were only here for what two, two and a half months? For someone in a coma, I’d say you got lucky."

Barry shook his head slightly, muttering under his breath. “Yeah, lucky.”

Thea tilted her head as she glanced at him. She wasn’t sure where his negativity toward the subject came from, but she decided up change the topic. She gave him her brightest smile, leaning forward on her elbows brushing her knees against his. “You ever going to tell me what you’re working on?”

Barry looked away for a second, glancing back and forth from her and the tablet for a few minutes before he finally nodded. “Yeah. Go grab that chair.”

Thea moved around the small area

“I wasn’t actually expecting you to say yes.”

“I wasn’t sure that I was going to, but I think I’ve made enough not so smooth comments to you in the last few months that it’s pretty obvious that I like you. And I don’t like keeping secrets from people that matter to me.”

Thea smiled, bumping her shoulder next to his. “Is this the part where you tell me you’re some sort of super villain and you’re going to need access to my bank account? Cause most guys try to get through the first date before that.”

“I’m not most guys.”

“But you are a super villain after my money?”

"No. But I have been keeping something from you."

"You’re starting to make me nervous, Barry."

"I’m not really sure how to say this without just showing you."

"Is this about the stuff you and Felicity have been working on?"

"Felicity has been helping me run data. She’s trying to figure out what happened to me."

"What happened—" Thea’s sentence was cut off by an orderly knocking on the door and popping her head into the room.

"Everything is ready, Ms. Queen."

"Thanks, we’ll be right out."

"What’s going on?"

"A Valentine’s surprise." Standing up, Thea held out her hand. "Come on. Think this is a conversation we can have outside?"

Barry nodded, standing up and taking her hand. “It actually might be better to do this outside.” He squeezed her hand gently. “I can show you what happened.”

Thea nodded as they started walking out the door. They walked through the halls silently. Thea tried to push out all of nightmare situations that were running through her mind about what Barry was going to tell her. She opened the door to the outside smiling as she saw the table that had been decorated for them.

"You set all of this up," Barry asked as he let go of her hand.

"Yeah, well, you don’t like keeping secrets from people who matter to you, and I like doing things for people who matter to me."

He smiled. “Thank you.”

"Yeah. So what are you showing me?"

Letting out a big breath, Barry closed his eyes. “Try not to freak out.”

"What are you—" Thea stopped talking, her eyes widening as she watched Barry practically disappear in front of her. She closed her eyes, trying to control get breathing. "Barry?"

"I’m over here."

Thea turned her body toward the direction of his voice. He was on the other side of the court yard, his hands in his pockets, looking down toward the grass.

"How did you—" Thea laughed nervously as he moved back toward her in a blur of movement. "How?"

"That’s what Felicity and I are trying to find out."

"What you’ve been working on."

"How freaked out are you?"

"Ask me that in a week when my brain has actually caught up." Thea reached out, grabbing his hand. "How about that food?"

Barry nodded. “I get it if it’s too much.”

"You didn’t lie to me. You have no idea how much that means to me. I just… Barry, that’s not… normal."

"Normal is a relative term."

Thea laughed as she sat down on the edge of the bench. She and Felicity were going to have one hell of a conversation tomorrow.


End file.
